‘Why our bulldozers pulled down N3b estate’

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Senator Bala Mohammed has explained why his administration rolled out bulldozers to demolish an estate valued at about N3b in the FCT.

But his explanation suggested that the destruction of those houses had put the FCT authorities under pressure.

When the bulldozers moved into the sprawling Minanuel Estate, pulling down the nearly completed housing units said to be about 500, the operation elicited a backlash.

The developers mobilised and staged a protest, querying the FCT administration’s action and intentions.

Other interested parties joined on the side of the developers, appearing to give the position of the protesters some legitimacy.

The developers and protesters accused the Mohammed administration of not only over-reaching themselves but also pulling down the houses just to satisfy the interests of federal lawmakers. Minanuel Developers claimed to have flouted no known laws in building the houses in the Kyami District of the Federal Capital City along Airport Road.

The position of the developers as well as the protesters and all other allied parties were duly reported.

The FCTA has now reacted to the reports, saying that the removal of those structures was right because they were illegal and that the demolition followed due process.

The Minister said the operation was carried out with a view to protecting the sanctity of the Abuja Master Plan.

Senator Mohammed said in Abuja that Kyami District where the affected structures were located falls within the Phase V of the Federal Capital City, Abuja and that the law is clear on that.

He said the FCT Development Control discovered these illegal developments at their embryo stage and swiftly served a ‘Stop Work Notice’ on August 20, 2011 with an instruction for the estate developer (Minanuel Estate) to present the title document for the plot, approved building plan as well as comprehensive development plan which the developer allegedly disregarded.

He added that on September 9, 2011, the FCT Development Control served the developer a ‘Quit Notice’ with further instructions to present the earlier documents requested which also apparently fell on deaf ears.

When the developer(s) refused to respond to the notices served, the Minister said that the FCT Administration had no option but to serve a ‘Demolition Notice’ on October 3, 2011.

It is worth mentioning that at the early stage, the FCT Administration made frantic efforts to discourage the continuation of these illegal developments by removing their sub-structures and covering the excavations but after a while, the developers went back to site and resumed illegal development at a frenzied speed, he added.

The Minister reiterated that the FCT Development Control has full documentation of stamped notices that were served with photo clips to back them up at the time of issuance of all these notices.

Mohammed remarked that the FCT Administration also took a pro-active step to deter unsuspecting Nigerians from falling victim to prospective fraudsters luring people into buying lands or houses in illegal estates and unrecognised layouts with fake title documents backed with fake and back-dated building plan approvals. That step, he said, involved making several announcements on both radio and television across the city.

His words: “It was stated in the public notices and announcements that developers and buyers should beware that there was no approved plots for estate development after Lugbe FHA”.

The Minister regretted that these illegal estate developers at Kyami District have now resorted to whipping up sentiments after refusing to heed to timely warnings by rather choosing to rush the illegal developments of the estates, hoping to legitimise an illegality.

In order to put the records straight, Senator Mohammed further said that affected illegal structures removed include Minanuel Estate (198); Isvin Estate (13); Jo-Afra (54); Grow-Insight (6) and Unknown (25) totaling 296, a number said to be in sharp contrast with the 500 structures claimed.

He challenged the illegal developers to present their genuine title documents to the plots as well as valid building plan approvals of the these illegal structures.

While saying that his heart is with the affected subscribers who fell victim of illegal structure developers, the Minister urged the residents of the FCT to continue to cooperate with the FCT Administration to build a well planned, orderly and beautiful Abuja city in line with the yearnings and aspirations of its founding fathers.

The representative of the developers, Festus Adebayo, had described the demolition as mischievous and unwarranted, adding that “the papers and other documents to support the development are valid and free from all encumberances before and after the company took possession of the land from NCR Associates in 2004.”

It was also alleged that the estate had been re-allocated to some senators by the FCT authorities.

Adebayo said that the demolished houses were 80 per cent completed before they were pulled down, stressing that “the company received all approvals to build and develop these destroyed residential houses which were planned to be handed over to owner-contributors by the end of October, 2012.”

He stated that no notice was issued by demolishers.

He said that the demolished houses consisted of 372 units of three- and two-bedroom bungalows, which had over 95 per cent subscription from civil servants, aided by bank loans and mortgages.

Adebayo said that the swiftness with which the properties were destroyed was reminiscent of military fiat.

“It is unthinkable that residential houses designed for low income earners are destroyed in a country which has a housing deficit of over 16 million,” he explained.

He said that the subscription for the houses was in connection with social housing under the national housing fund.

Chairperson of the Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN), Hajia Binta Ibrahim who commiserated with Minanuel Investments, had also described the demolition as an act of economic sabotage.

“This has defeated the present administration’s agenda on mass housing, while also discouraging private developers to participate in mass housing programmes in Nigeria.”

Ibrahim stressed that there was no justification for the action, adding that REDAN was poised to defend Minanuel Investments as it lawfully acquired the property.

The Director of the FCT Development Control Unit, Yahaya Yusuf said the 100 houses demolished in the Estate were illegal structures.

Yusuf explained that the demolition became inevitable due to what he called the recalcitrant attitude of the estate developer who allegedly continued to build on the plot of land based on a backdated title documents from the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC).

He noted that AMAC allocation stopped being legal documents in 2004 while the building plan approval from AMAC also lost authenticity in 2006.

Yusuf said even after an advertisement by the FCTA that developers should stop encroaching on lands meant for other purposes for mass housing, several developers failed to yield.

His words: “Failure of the estate developers to heed the advertorials prompted the Department to commence removal of such illegal structures.

The director said when the Department of Development Control noticed that developers were not complying, the sunshine estate, liberty, civil defence estate, prison service staff housing estates, among others, were demolished and were told to come forward for revalidation of their land titles at the Urban and Regional Planning Unit.